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Monthly Archives: January 2009

I would love for grocery store websites to have an area where I could paste in a text version of my shopping list (or something similar). The website would re-order the list based on how items are arranged in the store. That way I could make an optimal trip through the grocery store, acquiring all my items with a single trip through each aisle.

I realize that this would have a limited audience, but that’s not my concern. I’m just mentioning an idea that I would like to see implemented. There are lots of ancillary features that could be included. For example, it could include coupons for promoted products from your list. It could provide coupons for competing items on your list. It could suggest recipes that include items from your list. The options are innumerable. Your purchasing habits are already tracked if you have a “convenience card”. They could let you use your own shopping history as a “favorites” list for fleshing out a new shopping list more quickly.

Melissa and I had dinner with some church friends tonight. We went to St. Elmo’s. They’re celebrating Devour Downtown: Winterfest where a bunch of the downtown restaurants create special menu items that cost $30 per person. That gets you an appetizer, entree and dessert. It’s quite a deal.

Melissa and I each had their famous shrimp cocktail. It’s _very_ spicy and oh so delicious! The filet, mashed potatoes and green beans were also great, but the shrimp cocktail was sooo good. The only thing that Melissa and I had that wasn’t the same was dessert: she had the crème brulée and I had the cheesecake with a raspberry reduction. Both were extremely good. If I had it to do over, I think I would get the exact same thing.

Last but not least, out waiter, Peter, was perfect. He was fast, alert and funny. I couldn’t have asked for better service.

Last night’s game was very close and exciting. We ended up losing 11-14. We were tied at two points in the night, but fell behind again at the end. On the personal side of things, I caught a point, caught a cross field pass while being guarded by a _very_ good player and fired a break side throw up the sideline which got converted into a point on the next throw. All in all, an excellent game for both my team and myself.

Last week’s game was also a loss, and I played worse. The score was similar, 10-14 I think.

We had an exciting weekend, but not the good sort of excitement. After work Friday, we headed up to Detroit to visit Melissa’s family. We were most of the way to Detroit when the van just died on the interstate. That’s bad enough, but it was also snowing. There were 3-4 inches of snow on the road and no plows were out. So here we are with a dead van on the side of the road, stranded.

Long story short, we had to get it towed then wait for Melissa’s family to rescue us from the middle-of-nowhere-Michigan. At least we were only 45 minutes from their house, so it wasn’t as much of an imposition as it could have been. The next day we went back down, had it towed to a dealership. They found out the coil was split in half (they assure me that’s not normal). They had to order a new part. Hopefully soon I’ll get the call that they’re done repairing it and we can return home.

Edit: the dealership finished the van around 2pm on Monday. We got going ASAP and got home around 10pm Monday. Was a long (and somewhat tiring trip). It’s good to be home. Also, I highly recommend Monroe Dodge as a good place to get a vehicle repaired in Monroe Michigan. (:

First game of winter league was tonight. We played at seven thirty. It was my first time meeting several of these people. I’d say I’m familiar with perhaps half of them. I think it will be a fun team to play with. Fairly good technical skill with a few risk takers. I am still sick with some sort of respiratory ailment, so I’m not at my best but it still felt good to run. We lost 13-7, if I remember correctly. That’s ok though. I had fun. (:

Since both of my favorite pairs of jeans are well past the point where I should have decommissioned them and I rarely find time to go shopping for new ones (or goodwill ones), I decided to try ebay. I bought a pair of pants of the correct dimensions for $11, shipped. We’ll see how it goes.

If it works out, I think it may end up being my preferred method for re-acquiring clothes that I already know fit me (brand, style, size) and just need to replace. It’s a pain to do that in person, since I don’t keep track of which stores sell which brands. I also lose track of what clothes are currently being produced at all. All around simpler to just type some keywords in and receive the goods that I actually want.

I got to spend the weekend with my two year old daughter. It was fun. Melissa was out of town at a canine event so Emma and I hit the road and visited my parents. We had a very relaxing and enjoyable visit. She was especially good on the two and half hour drive. Not perfect (she’s two!), but certainly better than average. She kept her shoes on most of the time and only yelled a little. That’s a win in my book.

On the trip, I listened to the first 2.5 discs of Neil Stevenson’s Anathem. I’m enjoying it even though it’s a tad slow to get started. I went in expecting that, given that it’s a 28 CD audio book. Wish I could get that on an MP3 CD. Would save me a lot of disc shuffling. (: